Height, age at menarche and risk of hormone receptor‐positive and ‐negative breast cancer: A cohort study

Abstract

Associations of breast cancer overall with indicators of exposures during puberty are reasonably well characterized; however, uncertainty remains regarding the associations of height, leg length, sitting height and menarcheal age with hormone receptor‐defined malignancies. Within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort, Cox proportional hazards models were used to describe the relationships of adult height, leg length and sitting height and age at menarche with risk of estrogen and progesterone receptor negative (ER‐PR‐) (n = 990) and ER+PR+ (n = 3,524) breast tumors. Height as a single risk factor was compared to a model combining leg length and sitting height. The possible interactions of height, leg length and sitting height with menarche were also analyzed. Risk of both ER‐PR‐ and ER+PR+ malignancies was positively associated with standing height, leg length and sitting height and inversely associated with increasing age at menarche. For ER+PR+ disease, sitting height (hazard ratios: 1.14[95% confidence interval: 1.08–1.20]) had a stronger risk association than leg length (1.05[1.00–1.11]). In comparison, for ER‐PR‐ disease, no distinct differences were observed between leg length and sitting height. Women who were tall and had an early menarche (≤13 years) showed an almost twofold increase in risk of ER+PR+ tumors but no such increase in risk was observed for ER‐PR‐ disease. Indicators of exposures during rapid growth periods were associated with risks of both HR‐defined breast cancers. Exposures during childhood promoting faster development may establish risk associations for both HR‐positive and −negative malignancies. The stronger associations of the components of height with ER+PR+ tumors among older women suggest possible hormonal links that could be specific for postmenopausal women.

Effects of Obesity on Presentation of Breast Cancer, Lymph Node Metastasis and Patient Survival: A Retrospective Review

“…Many of risk factors which are known to develop breast cancer are related to estrogen, e.g. early menarche, late menopause and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) (Key et al, 2001;Weiss et al, 2002;Van Leeuwen and Rookus, 2003;Ritte et al, 2013). Protective factors include child bearing and breastfeeding (Jernström et al, 2004;Andrieu et al, 2006;Stuebe et al, 2009;Jordan et al, 2010).…”

Adult height is associated with risk of cancer and mortality in 5.5 million Swedish women and men

“…Height has been linked to increased risks of cancers of the colon,1 rectum,1 breast,2 endometrium,3 ovary,4 kidney,5 central nervous system (CNS)6 and prostate,7 and to malignant melanoma,8 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma9 and leukaemia 10. The World Cancer Research Fund stated in their 2018 report that there is convincing strong evidence that adult height is positively associated with colorectal, ovarian and breast cancer and that there is probable convincing evidence that birth weight is positively associated with breast cancer 11.…”

NEMO, a Transcriptional Target of Estrogen and Progesterone, Is Linked to Tumor Suppressor PML in Breast Cancer

“…The role of estrogen and progesterone (EþP) exposure and risk of breast cancer is controversial. Events that result in longer lifetime exposure to hormones estrogen and progesterone have been shown to increase a woman's relative risk of getting breast cancer (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11). However, the mechanisms underlying this association are still unclear.…”